Crypto News 18.10.2018

Elon Musk’s Boring company now accepts Bitcoin

Elon Musk has officially entered the world of cryptocurrency, with the entrepreneur’s startup The Boring Company now accepting Bitcoin, Litecoin and others. Founded in 2016, The Boring company’s mission is to eliminate traffic in major cities by creating a web of underground tunnels that provide a new way to rapidly move from one place to another.

With the company building its first test tunnel in Los Angeles, Musk decided to sell a line of unique items promoting the venture, including hats and the now-infamous “Not-A-Flamethrower.” The company’s line of fire-related products can be purchased with Bitcoin & Litecoin, as noted on the company’s website.

Security firm G4S launches crypto custody service

UK based security services company G4S now offers a crypto custody service aimed to protect investors’ holdings of digital assets. The firm said, with the rising popularity of cryptocurrencies, it developed the new service to offer “high-security offline storage that helps to protect assets from criminals and hackers.”

Dominic MacIver, a senior risk analyst at G4S said “Our security solution is built on a foundation of ‘vault storage’. We not only take the assets offline, but break them up into fragments that are independently without value and store them securely in our high security vaults, out of reach of cyber criminals and armed robbers alike.”

Mt Gox Bitcoin creditors have 4 more days to submit claims

Clients of the long-defunct crypto exchange Mt. Gox must submit any claims for trapped funds by Oct. 22nd 2018. The exchange first opened up the claims process in August, following a bankruptcy battle. Creditors are able file for their cryptocurrency holdings, rather than a fiat equivalent based on the cryptocurrency prices in 2014. After the October 22nd deadline passes, Mt. Gox trustee Nobuaki Kobayashi has 3 more months to file a statement of approval or rejection.

According to the statement outlining the civil rehabilitation process:

“At this moment, we plan not to accept specific filing of cryptocurrencies other than bitcoins. Instead, we plan to deem bitcoin creditors who have filed a proof of claim for bitcoins have also filed a proof of claims for other cryptocurrencies proportionate to the number of bitcoins filed. We will post the further detailed information on this website.”

Top Indian exchange Zebpay moves to Malta after central bank blockade

The harsh cryptocurrency regulatory climate in India has turned out to be a gift for the self-styled blockchain island of Malta, as one of the cryptocurrency exchanges that recently shut down in the world’s 2nd most populous country has decided to move operations there. Zebpay, one of the biggest exchanges in India, has registered an office in Malta with a view of serving not just citizens and residents of the island nation but also 20 countries whose residents and citizens are eligible to access its cryptocurrency exchange services.

In Malta, Zebpay has been incorporated under the name Awlencan. The exchange went on to state: “The curb on bank accounts has crippled our, and our customer’s, ability to transact business meaningfully… At this point, we are unable to find a reasonable way to conduct the cryptocurrency exchange business.” Zebpay was launched 3 years ago and has amassed 3 million users with hundreds of thousands of new users joining each month prior to the banking freeze by India’s central bank.

US Marshals to auction $4M in Bitcoin next month

The US Marshals have announced a plan to auction off about $4 million worth of Bitcoin next month. The sealed bid auction is for 660 Bitcoin that were forfeited in federal criminal, civil and administrative cases. Scheduled to start on Nov. 5th, the auction requires would-be bidders to deposit $200,000 after registering their identification with the agency no later than Oct .31st.

The agency indicated some of the assets in the auction include bitcoin forfeited in several recent cases such as the US government’s lawsuits against bitcoin traders Theresa Tetley and Thomas Mario Costanzo – both sentenced to jail on charges of Bitcoin money laundering. The planned auction comes just months after the US Marshals sold over 2,100 Bitcoin and 3,600 Bitcoin in March and January, respectively, an amount totaling to more than $50 million at the time.